I used to be pretty heavily into Survivor growing up. I watched the first season from the ‘snake’ or whatever comment the trucker lady used on Richard to weird themes like OneWorld, etc. I mention this not to talk about the show, but to bring up a person from the show – Boston Rob. He was one of the first group of people who came back when CBS decided they loved returning players on Survivor and BB. Of course, there had been All-Stars along the way, but I believe Redemption Island was one of (if not the first?) to feature newbies with vets – Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. That show was a long time ago.

Rob was originally on the fourth season which he was voted out midway through the game. He was invited back for All-Stars where he finished second to his future wife (Ambahh) and was one of the original ‘showmances’, then came back for another All-Star season where he was kicked out fairly early. He was invited back for a then record fourth time (!!) but this time to square off against another Survivor great – Russell Hantz. They were given their own team of newbies and used all their experience as basically a gift from CBS to give one of the two a million dollars. Russell’s rep didn’t go over as well as Rob’s and he was voted out fairly early, but Rob used his previous 3x on the show and gave a clinic on how to win the game.

What he did during that season was pretty impressive and still goes down as one of the greatest performances on reality show history of a veteran controlling newbies. He used his fame to find the newbies who were star struck and he took them under his wing. Those who weren’t ended up being the targets and sniped by Rob and his group of girls (and crazy Phillip). Once he got out the early threats to his game, he then started pegging off the other potential alpha-males who may have threatened him down the road. The biggest thing Rob learned and carried into the game was how easily influenced people could be, so he made sure those people were on his side and heavily monitored & controlled. From what I remember, after the merge he prevented his allies from even really being friendly with the people from the other tribe because he knew where that could lead. He had that numbers and it really didn’t matter who won individual immunity because there was always the next target up for him to choose from.

Now, why am I talking about Rob on a Big Brother blog? Because I see so many similarities between Rob’s game and Paul’s game so far this season. Being the only vet (similar to Rob on his original tribe), he has been playing up his knowledge and experience of the game to win people over. With the gift given to him by CBS which was the ‘friendship bracelet’, he was even able to basically interview all the newbies to find out who would be the most loyal to him moving forward. He quickly pegged Cody as someone who wasn’t going to play his game, and worked hard to exploit any angle possible to split him up from his alliance of showmances. When Cody tried to nominate him, Paul played the victim card and quickly gained sympathy from Cody’s alliance because why would big bad Cody want to evict such a non-threat like Paul? (sarcasm)

Keep in mind that Paul accepted the temptation that gave him safety and potentially screwed over a random newbie and when exposed, he turned it around to say he had to do that to filter out those he could trust versus those he couldn’t (Cody). The entire negative aspect of the Temptation Twist (the curse) was downplayed and eventually written off as something people should accept when they’re given their care package … err, temptation. It was quite brilliant and impressive to watch no matter how many former cast members cry on twitter about the unfair advantages he’s been given so far.

Fast forward to yesterday when Paul’s game could have potentially blown up in his face after trying to overplay his hand this week. He nominated two pawns (Josh and Alex) so he can eventually pull one down and replace them with Cody. Doing so greatly decreased the chances of Cody playing in the PoV, but exposed the risk of a Josh/Alex nomination week come Thursday night. He was given a gift when Christmas – the girl he saved last week – approached him and said she got the temptation this week and could remove someone who wasn’t nominated from playing in veto. This gave Paul even more flexibility to nominate his pawns and then just have Christmas use her twist had Cody been selected by random draw.

The one kink in his plan came from the curse that kept him safe for the first three weeks. That was Ramses was forced to nominate himself as the 3rd nominee and he chose to do it this week because of the big target on Cody’s back. The problem with that came if Ramses won the veto because he would either not use it which kept the noms the same, or used it to pull himself off which didn’t allow for Paul to pick a replacement nom. Ramses winning was potential to destroy Paul’s week, and he knew it because not only did he hound Ramses to throw the competition, but he had everyone in his alliance do the same.

During the veto competition, it was one of the few types of comps that would have allowed Ramses to win without realizing it as each player went out on their own to compete against the clock. From what I gather during the comp, it was fairly difficult and everyone sucked pretty bad. When the feeds returned, Paul was celebrating his PoV victory but immediately went into the HoH room to rally his troops against Ramses. Despite claiming he was throwing it, Ramses eventually finished with a time better than I think everyone but Paul. This included Elena who admitted she wasn’t trying to throw it. With Elena admitting that, Paul had more fuel for his anti-Ramses campaign and told his group to go in full cold-shoulder mode this week toward the guy. To Paul, throwing a competition is not a thrown competition unless it was a complete failure.

Now to be fair, I am not sure if Ramses really did try to throw it or not, but that’s irrelevant. What is relevant is he appeared to not throw it and that was all Paul needed to pick his next target once Cody and probably Jessica were out of the house.

The treatment of Ramses these past few days is what made me think of the control Boston Rob had over his alliance during his winning season and the way Paul is playing it is almost like he studied that season before coming into the house. Does that mean Paul is guaranteed to win this season? No, nothing is guaranteed. What it does mean is that as of right now, a large majority of the house is playing Paul’s game and are there just as pieces on Paul’s chessboard. Unless something major happens with the newbies realizing they’re going to be picked off one by one, we may be looking at a long summer of Paul controlling the entire game. Is that a good thing? If you’re Paul or a huge Paul fan – yes. However, if you really just want to see a bunch of zombies walking around mindlessly, I’d suggest watching Fear the Walking Dead. It’s actually pretty decent this season.

So what do you think? Is Paul going to cruise to victory this week, or is this just a temporary run of good luck before the newbies wake up and start playing their own game?

Rita, I like Jasont too but he kinda reminds me of the bearded older southern guy a couple of seasons ago. Really likable but never had any game. Paul’s a good player and if the newbies are too dumb to band against him, oh well. I have a feeling after Grody is gone things will reshuffle a bit and people may look at their individual game more closely.

your question makes no sense. do u mean cruise to victory in the game? of course he will be victorious this week, that’s a given…..and yes, i believe kevin and alex have too much street smarts to be jerked around all summer…

“So what do you think? Is Paul going to cruise to victory this week, or is this just a temporary run of good luck before the newbies wake up and start playing their own game?”

For now I have to be team Paul. One or both of the nauseating, nasty, JODY duo have to go, and preferably both before they can poison the jury house. After that, let the games begin. I can definitely see Alex leading a charge against Paul.

Paul will for sure get his way of Cody being evicted this week, which I’m totally fine with, but I still force Cody coming back in some battle back(why wouldn’t there be one, “expect the unexpected”. But I’m not gonna lie, ill be happy to see a Paul downfall like last season’s paulie and somewhat frank.

I am not willing to give up on the newbies yet. It is difficult to know how they will do while Paul has safety. Though Cody is abrasive, he was onto Paul from the beginning. He said to some of the others, that Paul didn’t get to F2 by being loyal to everyone. Hopefully some of the others will wake up, realize they are in a game and start playing. Play as if they want to WIN, not just get to jury (which has seemed to be the highest aspirations of some previous HGs).

I don’t see Alex, Christmas and maybe Kevin being followers for the whole summer. With Paul being safe for 3 weeks, let him do the real dirty work for now. Maybe when his 3 weeks of safety are up, 1 of the above will step up. More likely Alex or Christmas, with Kevin in the background yelling, “yeah, what she said!”, to appear he’s on the same side as 1 of the 2.

i really dont see it that way, what i see is that people are dancing to pauls music because he has all the power this week.sure there are some braindeads(mark,elena) and some people who actually want to work with him(dominique,josh),plus theres a common target to everyone on the house. if he tries to put the target on ramses at least alex and jason are gonna turn,and alex being alex lets see where that goes…

I’m a fan of Paul’s but dont like the control he has. If he was doing it without 3 weeks of safety, I would be more impressed. I don’t think all the other hg have been brainwashed by him either. It would be stupid for anyone to go against him at this point. They can’t evict him. Yes, Elena and Raven are dazzled by Paul but Alex, Kevin, Jason and Matt are not. The others fall somewhere in the middle. I’m not convinced we would have zombies without him. We’ll never know because CBS likes their returning player twist. With people like Xmas, Cody, Jessica and Alex, I think the show would have been just fine with newbies. Paul IS doing a great job so far but how much of it is his amazing skills and how much of its because he’s safe for now? I don’t know and that’s the problem.
I’ve always liked Survivor but I didn’t care for Robs season with his groupies. It was boring and those were the real zombies.
I predicted (for myself) the first night that I may become unable to root for Paul this year because part of his appeal last year was watching someone who didn’t have a clue start to figure it out. He doesn’t have that this time. He just comes off as an abrasive, rude, know it all who bashes bully tactics while using them himself. I’m not anti Paul just yet but as he so often says “as a returning vet” he’s lost the underdog charm he once had. He’s fun to watch until he gives you a headache. I think it’s a good season so far and the people are interesting so I’m anxious for his 3 weeks to go by, have others step up and see where it goes from there. I think it may be a good year in spite of CBS and their tiring twists.

I agree that Paul’s appeal (for me) came from his evolution across the season last year. He was difficult for me to watch, but in the end I did think he played a better game and deserved to win. Plus I didn’t want Nicole to win on a third chance (she battled back in her original season). I think it should be ‘one and done’ unless it is a returning player season. I disagree with previous comments that Paul got ‘robbed’ last summer. Paul, with who he is, contributed to each vote for or against him. In terms of the jurors, his housemates, he came up short (no pun intended lol).

I was a Paul fan from the beginning. Someone that can come in and stir up the house, yet win over everyone? My kind of player. But I also think half of Pauls charm last season was Victor. They were greet at balancing each other out. Right now, Paul is missing that player he can trust that will tell him to dial it back. With that said, with him having safety and ALL the power this week-I think Paul deserves to let his ego blow up for a couple days. However, if he doesn’t humble himself next week, he will be everyone’s target-even his loyal followers. Those of us that love Paul love the sweet “mamas boy” side of him most (and yes-friendship and loyalty is what we all crave). So- don’t write Paul off yet. For those of you that think Alex will be the one to go against him-it depends on who has Hoh when the time comes. I can see Kevin doing it. He’s actually the only one I can see kicking Paul out and keeping respect of everyone. But Alex and Kevin could make an incredible team. Dominique has the potential to go far in the game, too. The personal connection she makes between counseling and her show-smart and observant girl. But her focus is not primarily on winning the game. So…we’ll have to wait and see.

Cody is really working it with Alex and Jason……I hope Alex is smarter…..but I am beginning to wonder….
I can’t feel sorry for Ramses….he was trying to play both sides…yes his main loyalty was to Alex but he has to take responsibility for the fact that he could of just as easily told Paul and the others no,I can’t throw the comp,not while I’m on the block….they may have respected him more and certainly he would not have burned every bridge he had in the house…..

I’ve got to disagree a little Helen. Paul wasn’t presenting it to Ramses as an option. He was basically told that he WILL throw it or get his ass kicked. He also stayed loyal to his side. Kevins convincing lie about the vote is what alienated Ramses from his side of the house. I think it took more guts for Ramses to vote out Xmas which he did. He just isn’t getting the credit for doing it.

I think Ramses is a sneak and I can’t respect that kind of game play. He is loyal to Alex, but isn’t he loyal to Elena? Wasn’t she the only one he told about the curse originally? He could be a smart player, but he needs to change up tactics. His sneaking around has been called out. At least get sneaker about it. Hide in a room (maybe the HOH or HN room until people come in and start talkimg. I don’t see people looking under beds, etc anytime they walk in a room and start having conversations. But I also don’t see the live feeds…if you were Ramses, what would you do at this point of the game?

I don’t hate Dom as much as some of the other commenters. But does she have an interest in Mark? Because the way she’s with him, their backyard discussion and her telling Mark to be leery of Elaine intentions. I’m not sure if this is game or if she’s really into this guy.

Paul doesn’t really perceive that Dominique supports him or his methods, and I think Paul is right. Dominique was tight with Cody until his nomination fiasco shifted the house. Then she slid onto Paul’s team, but it was a pragmatic slide, made to diffuse any potential blowback from her “admiration” of Cody. When people were disgusted that Cody didn’t consult his team or share his intentions about nominating Paul, Dominique spoke up for Cody. She made the self-aggrandizing remark that she had worked with lots of military men and understood that often the head honchos don’t disclose their plans or tactics to the troops.

What she said stood out to me as being the application of false reasoning. Cody is not a general and Big Brother isn’t a military campaign. He screwed himself by NOT discussing his thoughts with his team and created a mass mutiny. Dominique has a side relationship with Mark, which includes not so subtle Elena bashing and encouraging Mark to really be in an alliance with Dominique. She gives out sexual undertones for his enticement. It could be somewhat genuine. However, Dominique knows that Mark is malleable and would be very handy to her when she decides to unseat Paul from his throne.

One flat-out sign of all this was Paul’s doubletake in Dominique’s direction last night after he won POV, and she flounce right by him without doing any kowtow. Paul stopped in mid-strut and just stared open-mouthed at Dominique’s back after she passed by him.

Paul is definitely sitting pretty this week, and will be while he is protected. Let’s see how things in 3 weeks when his protection is over; a potential buyback comes back in the house; some new temptatations make things interesting; and possibly even a double eviction.

I’m ok with Paul taking the lead and getting Cody/Jessica/Jason/Ramses out. I’d rather have Cody gone than enjoy the ‘drama’ he provides. His mind games are so awkward and hateful. Paul still has two more safe weeks, so let him have his power trip for a while. It almost always backfires.

If it’s like that Boston Rob Survival season and the sheep line up for the slaughter, then they get what their game play deserves. I don’t think Christmas, Alex and Kevin will line up, though.

Good to see so many familiar names here on the Junkies site again this year. I seem to have less patience with the BBAD episodes and have no time for the live feeds, so thanks for keeping me updated commenters and Stevebeans. I will say the numerous nicknames for the players is hard to follow sometimes. I tend to just skip on to the next comment if the n-name doesn’t click with me. There should be a legend somewhere. LOL